More than two thousand women met at the first Continental Summit of Indigenous Women held in Puno, Peru on 27 to 31 May 2009, in order to find alternatives to injustice, discrimination, violence against women and “machismo”. Among the resolutions from the Summit was the formulation of a continental agenda in defense of the collective rights and human rights of indigenous women.
"We, the women, are dependent on nature. We must raise our voice to the world saying ‘no’ to the environmental contamination," asserted Feliciana Amado Chávez, Women’s Secretary of the National Confederation of Peruvian Communities Affected by Mining (CONACAMI), to Pulsar News Agency.
Among the resolutions made on environment and natural resources was the rejection of biofuels "because they exhaust the land and risk food sovereignty and the life of the natural ecosystem." The participants demanded the withdrawal of multinational organizations from indigenous territory "who are exploiting our mother earth and deteriorating the environmental ecosystem."
Another resolution made during the Summit was the creation of a Continental Coordinator for Indigenous Women of Abya Yala (term used by many indigenous people referring to the American continent), in order to strengthen the organizations of indigenous women, to promote proposals on political training, and to create spaces for the exchange of experiences in different areas, such as in economic, political, social and cultural spaces, among others.
Women at the meeting urged international organizations to improve humans rights instruments related to indigenous people by including women’s rights and to present alternative reports on advances and implementation.
The participants requested that the genocide and ethnocide of indigenous peoples that is being perpetrated by the military, paramilitary and other actors be stopped. They also rejected the persecution of social protests and the official repression of manifestations and other actions taken to defend human rights.
The women also expressed their solidarity with the struggle of the Amazonian people in Peru; a situation that worsened after the closing of the Summit. Amnesty International has expressed a profound concern over this situation and the events that took place on 5 June 2009 in the town of Bagua in which, according to official figures, 30 demonstrators and 22 policemen were killed and more than 150 demonstrators and 24 policemen were hurt.
"We, the women of Abya Yala wish to return to ways of mutual respect and harmony on the planet; we gather in this Summit and unite our hearts, minds, hands and wombs," the women wrote in the Mandate of the First Continental Summit.
The issue of natural resources and women’s opposition to the proposals
of extraction and contamination currently taking place in Latin America
was another important focus of the Summit.